Tuesday, December 05, 2017

Not only can you take a Calligraphy or Bookbinding class or workshop from me at Binders Art Supply or Aikido Decatur, you can schedule a private lesson and stuff a stocking with an Anne Elser Gift Certificate!

Private lessons are $250, two and a half hours long, come with complete handouts, and are conducted in my home studio in Decatur, GA.

Download a supply list for everything you'll need to make your someone special FEEL special.

This class or workshop is suitable for calligraphers, tweens, and all adults.

Class Schedule: We will meet Tuesday Mornings from 10AM-12:30PM EDT for six weeks.

**Eventbrite charges a fee for you to use their credit card precessing system. To AVOID this fee, you may send a check to 408 Tuxworth Circle • Decatur, GA 30033. Don't forget to list your email address and the course name/date so that the ticket for the class you want to take can be emailed to you.

This is a LIVE class, which is recorded for your enjoyment and review, then uploaded to a class folder on my Dropbox site each of our 6 weeks of class time together. If you ever have to miss a class, you can always check back later to watch what you missed abd practice at your own pace. I really enjoy the live format, and meeting so many people all over the world each week in my home. Live classes allow the student to interact with me and each other for specific feedback.

When registration closes, I will email a permanent weblink to you. This will be our virtual classroom for every time we meet. When the link and intro email is sent to you, click the link, which will open a web page in your web browser. And that's it! Google may ask you to download their software and if they do, just follow their prompts.

For the Google Hangout to work, we will all need to be using a set of headphones during demo time to plug into your computer. Your microphones should be muted, but cameras on. This cuts down on background noise while I am demonstrating. However, when we begin introductions, and for class discussion after each exercise is completes, you shoudl be unmuted so we can all have a lively disucssion! So please purchase a pair of earbuds if you don't already have a set.

Shortly before our first class you will receive a welcome email containing:

• PDF link to exemplar packet.

• Link to our Online Classroom

• Link to Online folders where class recordings are kept

After each live class, I’ll upload either a full-length recording of my demonstrations during the class OR a 20-minute review of the pages we worked on (and snapshots of those pages) for you to later download at your conveneince. This makes it easier for students to keep up with the class if you cannot participate live.

Note: these videos will take a day or two to appear in the class notes folder, as they are very large and take a long time for them to fully upload onto my Dropbox account. Please allow for at least a day and a half after a class date before you go searching for any content of that class.

Week 1-3: Cursive Crush

The speed of digital communication today has gifted us with more time to pursue things we love. But somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten how good it feels to use a writing instrument to record our thoughts for ourselves and to those we love. Writing, and the time it takes to produce letterforms, is good for the body, mind, and spirit. It is also a gift to the recipient, who holds your elevated thoughts in their hands, literally, and with far more consideration and pause than through a text or email.

The child of Spencerian calligraphy, Cursive Handwriting is not forgotten, because we have made a table for you to come join us in one fun and joyous day of lettering. Students will learn (or re-learn!) capitals and lower case letterforms, through formal exercises in structure, rhythm and flow - all standards similar to those taught not that long ago.

Time is spent on spacing and lower case characters. Later we’ll dance with capitals and dive right into an envelope addressing/letter writing project.

Week 4-6: Open-Shaded Script

The second half of this class or workshop is spent on the construction of open-shaded letterforms based on principles of script writing done with pointed pen.

Using a mono linear tool to describe the contour of a shaded stroke offers insight into its construction with its native tools, the broad-edge, pointed pen, or paint brush. Drawing these letter forms is not only useful in sketching out and planning of larger projects to be later filled in with ink, I believe they are also valid and beautiful class of letter forms in and of themselves. Because these letter forms are drawn with tools more commonly used today, they are the style I use more frequently in my every day writing, and therefore, have become more useful and precious to me than anything created with a dip pen. I am constantly writing letters and notes, whether on a chalkboard for my students, wedding signage for clients, fabric labels, canvas bags, handkerchiefs, monograms, journal pages, letters to friends, and much more.

Rendering a shade with a contour line offers the artist another opportunity to love the letter and learn more about the letter, and deepen your understanding of its relationship with other forms and unique features. Expression of the universal line of beauty need not be restricted to our ability to carry a pointed pen and ink well around with us every day. We can, with any mono linear tool and at any moment, study and celebrate our love of these forms with a crayon on the back of a paper menu, a pencil at the top of a grocery list, a marker labeling a box of preserved memories or a bag of home-made treats for a friend, the inside label of our child’s school uniform, every page in our journal entries, letters to friends, notes to beloved partners, and even our fingers in the sand.

**Eventbrite charges a fee for you to use their credit card precessing system. To AVOID this fee, you may send a check to 408 Tuxworth Circle • Decatur, GA 30033. Don't forget to list your email address and the course name/date so that the ticket for the class you want to take can be emailed to you.

Supply List:

Paper:

• Bienfang Graphics 360 9’’x12’’ Marker Pad

or Borden & Riley 9’’x12’’ 100s Smooth Cotton Comp Pad

• Rhodia Lined No 18 Pad

• Strathmore Calligraphy Pad (ivory paper that takes ink well and is great for folding envelopes.

Pens:

• A variety of ultra fine, fine, and medium point pens (for markers bullet point and not chisel)

• Pencils (two taped together if you’d like to draw letterforms originally drawn with a chisel nib)

• Pentel Slicci 025 pen

• Pentel Hybrid Technica pen

These pens come in a variety of thicknesses. You’ll want to have variety and choose something that writes very fine like the Slicci and have a slightly thicker width pen to see what feels right for you.

• Your favorite/preferred pens from home. Can be fine or medium point or bullet point. Ballpoint, felt tip, rollerball, gel pens, Sharpies, etc. Fountain pens are also wonderful. All are welcome and suitable for this class.

Stationary:

• Envelopes and stationary paper at least 5-10 envelopes/sheets

• Feel free to bring in embellishments like stickers, gems, and stamps!

Misc:

• Mechanical Pencil

• Eraser

• Metal ruler

• Xacto Blades/knife

• Self-healing cutting mat (or the back of a pad of paper)

More information:

• Anne Will be bringing her dog to this class. If you have an allergy or phobia that she needs to be aware of, please email Anne directly. Penkitten@anneelser.com

About Anne

After earning a BFA in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art and graduate studies in Graphic Design at The Portfolio Center, Anne Elser began her artistic career as a painter, bookbinder, designer, and calligrapher. With over 20 years teaching experience, her students often report how fulfilling the classroom experience is, prompting both personal and artistic transformations. Anne's classes are also FUN and full of laughter. Students find the sense of community she inspires enriching and entertaining.

She currently teaches private lessons in person and on-line from her home studio in Decatur, classes and workshops year round at Binder Art Supply in Buckhead and at their Ponce City Market location, occasional workshops at The Spruill Center for the Arts, and classes and workshops at Aikido Decatur. She also travels in the states and abroad conducting workshops.

Her work has been featured in books and magazines across the country, and for both private and corporate clients such as Tiffany&Co, Mont Blanc, Louis Vuitton, Paces Papers, Landor, Martha Stewart Weddings, Belk, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Clicquot Veauvé, World50, Ogilvy, and more.

Artist, calligrapher, teacher, mother, and friend, Anne believes making art creates a channel for truth and is a soulful reflection of the connections shared by all.

FAQs

Are there ID or minimum age requirements to enter the event?

This is an adult class. Childrens classes coming soon!

What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?

Plenty of parking is provided in the parking lot and off-treet parking nearby is also available.

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?

Send Anne an email to: PenKitten@Anne Elser.com

What's the refund policy?

Refunds are not available at this time.

Do I have to bring my printed ticket to the event?

Yes please, to the first night of class, or show your ticket on your smartphone.

Is my registration fee or ticket transferrable?

No.

Is it ok if the name on my ticket or registration doesn't match the person who attends?

Yes. If you purchased this class or workshop as a gift, please let me know the name of the person taking the class when you register.

The
definition of flourish is to flower. We all flower in our language, thoughts,
hopes and dreams, body movements, voices, and in our relationships with each
other and the beautiful big world we share. But most importantly, we flourish
all by ourselves - our bodies do this automatically - we were built this way.
Look at the branching of blood vessels in our bodies, how our fingers splay
open or fan out like flowers, the growth pattern of the hair on our heads, all
the many muscles in our face that produce a genuine smile. That’s flourishing.

Everyone
can flourish, but it is a daunting task for so many of us to draw one on paper.
This workshop is designed to create a sense of ease with the idea of
flourishing. We will identify points of fear and anxiety in our approach to
flourishing, that wobble our lines and tense up our bodies, and we will heal
ourselves from these negative work habits that make any exploration, especially
this one, an unpleasant task.

We’ll
train the eye and awakening the body (fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders and
breath) to align with each other. We’ll begin with identifying the unique
capabilities of our joints and how they best function in relation to the kinds
of strokes we are drawing, from the wrist, elbow, shoulder, and fingers. We
will begin to train our bodies to capably reproduce the elements of flourishes
that make them work and that our eyes have learned to identify: Ovals,
Perpendicular Intersections, Intersecting Ovals, Parallel Strokes, Shade and
Hairline Relationships, Accents, Textures, and MORE.

Working
in pencil, straight/oblique pointed pens, and everyday pens (everything from
felt tip, roller ball, gel pens, fountain pens, etc) we’ll memorize standard
flourishing movements that have been around a long time, and how to adjust and
vary their proportions to suit our needs. We’ll learn how to exaggerate
ascenders and descenders, the crossing of t’s, and the endings of words. We’ll
learn to curl these strokes around the graceful curve of an oval, so that our
pens are never lost, our strokes finding their way back home, even through the
most subtle of suggestions. We’ll make flourishes that stand alone, work with
each other, and that accent a word.

And
best of all, we’ll do this together.

More information:

• $5 Fee due to the instructor on the first
day of class or workshop.

• Anne Will be
bringing her dog to this class. If you have an allergy or phobia that she needs
to be aware of, please email Anne directly. Penkitten@anneelser.com

About
Anne

After earning a BFA in painting from the
Cleveland Institute of Art and graduate studies in Graphic Design at The
Portfolio Center, Anne Elser began her artistic career as a painter,
bookbinder, designer, and calligrapher. With over 20 years teaching experience,
her students often report how fulfilling the classroom experience is, prompting
both personal and artistic transformations. Anne's classes are also FUN and
full of laughter. Students find the sense of community she inspires enriching
and entertaining.

She currently teaches private lessons from her
home studio in Decatur, classes and workshops year round at Binder Art Supply
in Buckhead and at their Ponce City Market location, as well as Thursday
afternoon classes at The Spruill Center for the Arts, and classes and workshops
at Aikido Decatur. She also travels in the states and abroad conducting
workshops.

Her work has been featured in books and magazines
across the country, and for both private and corporate clients such as Tiffany&Co, Mont Blanc, Louis
Vuitton, Paces Papers, Landor, Martha Stewart Weddings, Belk, Saks Fifth
Avenue, Bloomingdales, Clicquot Veauvé, World50, Ogilvy, and more.

Artist, calligrapher, teacher, mother, and
friend, Anne believes making art creates a channel for truth and is a soulful
reflection of the connections shared by all.

Please Note: Anne Will be bringing her dog
to this class. If you have an allergy or phobia that she needs to be aware of,
please email Anne directly. Penkitten@anneelser.com

Supply
List:

Binders
Art Supply (bindersart.com) is the best local spot to purchase supplies for
this class and they will give you a 10% student discount. Anything that you
can’t find there, can be purchased at John Neal Books (johnnealbooks.com) or
Paper and Ink Arts (paperinkarts.com).

•
Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof White (water based that is thinned to your taste with
water.)

Pens/Pencils:

•
Your favorite pencil/eraser and markers/gel pens.

•
A variety of your favorite ultra fine, fine, and medium point pens (for markers
bullet point and not chisel).

These
pens come in a variety of thicknesses. You’ll want to have variety and choose
something that writes very fine like the Slicci and have a slightly thicker
width pen to see what feels right for you.

•
Your favorite/preferred pens from home. Can be fine or medium point or bullet
point. Ballpoint, felt tip, roller ball, gel pens, Sharpies, etc. Fountain pens
are also wonderful. All are welcome and suitable for this class.

Description The Italic calligraphic hand is one of the most
widely used and versatile alphabets around. Its generously wide strokes,
produced with a broad edge nib can easily be dressed up or down. Italic is the
perfect hand to learn for the beginning calligrapher yet versatile enough to
experiment with for the advanced. This is the hand that Shakespeare used
to pen his masterpieces!

Italic is less
about pretty handwriting, but more about DRAWING each and every letter. It’s
about establishing a pacing and rhythmic motion as you write - giving you a
consistency of shapes and letters, and spaces in between words and lines. It is
highly relaxing and meditative. Like yoga for the hands, it centers, calms, and
enchants the person making as well as and the person admiring it.

During this course or workshop, students will be given exemplars,
learning the intricate details ofthe minuscules and majuscules. We will also address spacing and layout
for addressing envelopes. More importantly will discover the connection between
mind and body, practicing good habits and movement, thusly finding our flow and
allowing the body to take charge, automatically producing the heart’s musings
in a spirit of openness, adventure, and wonder.

Supply List at the bottom of this message.

More information:

• $5 Fee due to
the instructor on the first day of class or workshop.

• Anne Will be
bringing her dog to this class. If you have an allergy or phobia that she needs
to be aware of, please email Anne directly. Penkitten@anneelser.com

About Anne

After earning a BFA in
painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art and graduate studies in Graphic
Design at The Portfolio Center, Anne Elser began her artistic career as a
painter, bookbinder, designer, and calligrapher. With over 20 years teaching
experience, her students often report how fulfilling the classroom experience
is, prompting both personal and artistic transformations. Anne's classes are
also FUN and full of laughter. Students find the sense of community she
inspires enriching and entertaining.

She currently teaches private
lessons from her home studio in Decatur, classes and workshops year round at
Binder Art Supply in Buckhead and at their Ponce City Market location, as well
as Thursday afternoon classes at The Spruill Center for the Arts, and classes
and workshops at Aikido Decatur. She also travels in the states and abroad
conducting workshops.

Her work has been featured in
books and magazines across the country, and for both private and corporate
clients such as Tiffany&Co, Mont Blanc, Louis Vuitton,
Paces Papers, Landor, Martha Stewart Weddings, Belk, Saks Fifth Avenue,
Bloomingdales, Clicquot Veauvé, World50, Ogilvy, and more.

Artist, calligrapher,
teacher, mother, and friend, Anne believes making art creates a channel for
truth and is a soulful reflection of the connections shared by all.

Please Note: Anne Will be bringing her dog to this class.
If you have an allergy or phobia that she needs to be aware of, please email
Anne directly. Penkitten@anneelser.com

More information:$5 Fee due to the instructor on the first day of class or
workshop.

This is an introductory look at Copperplate, an elegant and elastic
hand frequently used for formal invitations, documents and bridal
events. Completely enchanting, the dramatic thick and thins of this delicate
hand will make you swoon.

Copperplate is less about pretty handwriting, but more
about DRAWING each and every letter. It’s about establishing a pacing and
rhythmic motion as you write - giving you a consistency of shapes and letters,
and spaces in between words and lines. It is highly relaxing and meditative.
Like yoga for the hands, it centers, calms, and enchants the person making as
well as and the person admiring it.

During the six-week course or workshop, students will be
given exemplars, learning the intricate details ofthe minuscules and majuscules. We will also address spacing
and layout for addressing envelopes. More importantly will discover the
connection between mind and body, practicing good habits and movement, thusly
finding our flow and allowing the body to take charge, automatically producing
the heart’s musings in a spirit of openness, adventure, and wonder.

More information:

• $5 Fee due to the instructor on the first day
of class or workshop.

•
Anne Will be bringing her dog to this
class. If you have an allergy or phobia that she needs to be aware of, please
email Anne directly. Penkitten@anneelser.com

Saturday, February 04, 2017

My name is Anne Elser. I'm the calligraphy teacher you've been looking for, and you're the student I've been dreaming of. After a private lesson, students leave my home feeling calm and centered, having spent a delicious two and a half hours of focused study, learning a new skill based on something timeless and beautiful, and in the very room where I practice my craft.

I teach because it makes me happy. Lesson slots are offered on the following days/times and in my home studio in Decatur, GA. If coming here isn't an option for you, I also offer the same lesson materials via Google Hangout.

Monday and Saturday mornings from 10-12:30.Each lesson is 2.5 hours long for $250.00. A $125 non-refundable deposit reserves your lesson on my calendar, and the balance is due at the end of your lesson.

Call or text me at 404.509.9676 or e-mail me at PenKitten@AnneElser.com to schedule a lesson.

A student in my home studio during a private lesson.

I also love those epiphanic moments where I see the student turn a corner after having discovered something new. Writing and drawing clears the head and opens up windows of self discovery. It changes you. There you are with nothing but a pot of ink, an instrument to write with, and a blank white page waiting for your touch. It allows you to leave all the chaos of your life at the door and focus on something new, simple, and pure. And that's what you leave a lesson with: knowledge and experience with a new, simple, and pure part of yourself.

I teach mostly to learn. It feels more like shared learning, than teaching to me. Writing and drawing is a very intimate experience. It's just you and the paper - all I do is facilitate the beginning of a new relationship with yourself. I teach you how to pace yourself, how to place yourself, and more importantly how to love yourself as you learn the craft of calligraphy.

PRIVATE LESSONS: If you're interested in private calligraphy lessons in Copperplate, Italic, Brush Lettering, Flourishing, or Cursive Handwritring, I offer 2.5-hour sessions at $250.00 for each student. Other subjects you might be interested in include monogramming, envelope layout, flourishing, and more. Handouts are supplied. Your personalized lesson is conducted in my private home studio in Decatur, GA.

GROUP LESSONS: All year round, I teach both calligraphy group classes and workshops at Binders Art School in Buckhead or Ponce City Market, and Spruill Center for the Arts in Dunwoody. Both are excellent locations and wonderful people to work with. My students and I have a great time together, honing our craft and discovering together how completely relaxing, centering, enchanting, and entertaining the art of writing beautiful letters can be. Here's what my Calligraphy students have to say about their experiences.

Please feel free to write and ask me questions about whether a workshop, class, or private lesson is best for you. They all have advantages and value - just placed in different ways.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

This post is more than another push of my products, it’s the deeper story, a recap of the year that brought us here, and the reason I continue to come back, making things, earning things, building, and growing.

Since college graduation, I’ve made Christmas presents and cards for close friends and family members. After my divorce, I was hit with the notion that if I were to survive (happily) and really thrive, I had better use my talents as a form of income. I was determined to take my first steps into the second half of my life with my OWN shoes on, even if that meant being terrified that I might fail. That experiment has so far proved to be very successful. I’ve carefully crafted a schedule, audience, and pace for my work, and have largely gotten the most joy returned to me from my students. Clients are wonderful and all that, but students and colleagues and peers… that’s where all the love comes pouring in, in buckets and tons and mountains and…

My use of social media has become increasingly valuable. It is so interesting that I sell a craft of making and learning how to make handmade things, using the technology that is supposedly killing it. It’s not. This is great news! We can all have both! And aren’t we lucky. The voice I use on Instagram and Facebook is extremely personal - I like it that I can reach people via this medium and my musings and yearnings are amplified to the world - I love our connectedness - this garden I have carefully tended to over the years. It’s a garden I’ve cultivated - I’ve been careful about unfollowing accounts that don’t bring me pleasure, I’ve blocked a few haters here and there, and stay in touch with folks I haven’t seen in years - and even developed close friendships with people I may likely never meet in the flesh. It’s a beautiful place to be - to be kept in the loop of the lives of others. I’ve depended upon the accounts of many of you who stay connected in areas I don’t know very much about or subjects I don’t have much of a stomach for. And I like to think that what I share is of unique interest to some of you who sometimes yearn for a curse word surrounded by flowers or a Mary Oliver poem, or a sharpie drawing on the back of a beautiful person… I do it all, am it all.

I’ve tried to keep my nose clean for years and years and really don’t have much of a stomach for political news - I hate the way both sides exaggerate their point of view by ensuring their message is delivered either by inhumane cold indifference or wet and hysterical finger pointing. I can’t stand it and can smell it before it hits the web. This kind of news is crushing and it’s really super duper no fun at all sometimes to be an empath, a highly sensitive person, an introverted counselor - when your world - your garden - is packed with mud, emotional carnage, strangling weeds, blocking our my view of the light.

But when Trump ran against Hillary - it was all too tempting to not watch. I joined in with gusto, with brash confidence that he would lose. I got nice and dirty and I loved it, getting my fix of negativity. I felt a part of things and deliciously connected to my own anger and addicted to yours. And the eve of the election, I was ready to take a deep sigh of relief that the fight would be finally over. I would this holiday season, make my usual holiday card - maybe something about Star Wars or Girl Power or flowers fucking or who knows… I was happy and so excited.

And then the worst happened. 911 all over again - trauma and disappointment at my doorstep - my fingertips - my country broke up with me and chose THAT guy. I, like many of you, cried for days. Just so bereft. No words, except one thought - one delightful, venomous phrase popped into my head the next morning - I know what my 2016 Christmas card is going to be - a poster a big as fuck, in my best lettering “FUCK 2016”.

I spent a good portion of my Thanksgiving break sketching it out. I did version after version, turning the leaves and flourishes to flow with the occasional poison berry and prickly holly leaf… I was piping mad and disgusted. Fuck this year. I’d spent many times by the fire on my phone, clicking through one article after another until I’d read myself into a migraine. I’d had an RA flare that effected my work flow, I ended a toxic relationship I hadn’t known was toxic at the time, I was recovering and healing and doing my best to grow - and then this. I was going to solve that angry, pulsing ache with a card that would sum up what the last year had been like for me. FUCK YOU, 2016, the year that shall not be named again.

And then something happened.

I remembered who I was before any of life began to scar me and support in the contortion of Anne into all the other Anne’s that really weren’t me at all. I thought of my boy - who was watching his mom manage her own career - create a brand for herself - make LIFE and all the times he gets to watch me do what I do, knowing he’s gonna use my presentation of myself as a partial reference or his own choices in life. All I had to do was remember myself and remember that this is still MY garden, MY country, and I have control over how I frame and respond to what’s going on around me.

I am, at my core, the flower gardener who draws the garden. And after many conversations with a close mentor and friend, I was told that just because there is mud or weeds or sharp plants in the garden, doesn’t mean it’s my job to pull them or cut them down and pretend they aren’t a part of a thriving ecosystem. What’s different is ok. I must allow, if I am to be happy, while being true to myself and remembering how important it is for me to stay connected.

So I decided to create a calendar for the new year. I want my first step into 2017 to be on a good foot. There is plenty of time for me to curse again - to fling the mud and rant and rave and go bananas, but right now, I’m healing and offering light. A seed of solid hope for every single day of the next year ahead. That’s what this poster is all about.

Blossoming love - without law. It’s the single most thing that I do best.

So for those of you who marched on a cold rainy day, who keep your fingers on the pulse of all the details of this fucking awful storm that is shaking all of us at our core, I thank you. I thank you for being where you are - where and when it feels right to you, and for being here with me right now, just for reading.

“Love is the flower of life, and blossoms without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration.” -D.H. Lawrence

Up for sale today is my 2017 Calendar Poster.I’ve made three versions:

F O L L O W E R S

Anne Elser Calligraphy Facebook Page

A B O U T

Artist Anne Elser makes her living as a calligrapher, painter, designer, and as an instructor in these fields. She believes making art creates a channel for truth and is a soulful reflection of the connections shared by all.

Artist Anne Elser makes her living as a calligrapher, painter, designer, and as an instructor in these fields. She believes making art creates a channel for truth and is a soulful reflection of the connections shared by all.